


Lay With Me

by conniptionns



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Soft and Fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 21:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10499415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conniptionns/pseuds/conniptionns
Summary: It was Bitty’s first Thanksgiving in Providence. It was a hard-fought win, what with Thanksgiving being such an important family holiday in the Bittle home, but it was Jack and Bitty’s first year in their new home that they picked out together and Bitty was determined that every holiday in the first year they lived together would be celebrated alone together. It was a hard decision to make, and it was one that they made together over the course of several sleepy afternoon naps and late night skype sessions while Jack was out of town for games.Not only is it their first Thanksgiving together, it's their first Thanksgiving with their daughter.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Um, who knew that I had such strong opinions when it came to Jack and Bitty's daughter? Not I, but I will take this one to the grave. I love her more than my own life. Also, I didn't proofread, so apologies in advance for any mistakes.

It was Bitty’s first Thanksgiving in Providence. It was a hard-fought win, what with Thanksgiving being such an important family holiday in the Bittle home, but it was Jack and Bitty’s first year in their new home that they picked out together and Bitty was determined that every holiday in the first year they lived together would be celebrated alone together. It was a hard decision to make, and it was one that they made together over the course of several sleepy afternoon naps and late night skype sessions while Jack was out of town for games.

Bitty and Jack finalized their adoption of their daughter, Celia, in late August and Bitty left his café, Bitty Bites, in the capable hands of Lardo while he stayed at home with Cece because he couldn’t quite fathom leaving her to go to work until she was at least a little bit older. Jack wanted to quit hockey to stay home with his chouchou, as he had taken to calling her, but after a lengthy discussion with Eric, decided that he wasn’t ready to retire yet, but would miss their daughter every minute he didn’t get to spend with her.

Celia Maite was a very special little girl. She was born to a mother who loved her more than anything in this world, but unfortunately her mother didn’t have the means to provide a baby that was special like Celia. Celia was born blind and had undergone two surgeries and was to the point where they believed that she could make out shapes, but not much else. Nothing in the world could stop Cece. Bitty was in awe of her every day.

He had never really thought about having kids, maybe the concept of them, but for a long time Bitty had always assumed that he would end up alone and hadn’t put much thought into children before. It wasn’t until a small slip of a girl was crying in the corner booth at his café that he ever really thought about children as more than a foreign concept at all. Camila was Celia’s mother, and she was the girl that Bitty found crying in his café a little over two years ago. She was in Providence on a student visa and when she found out she was pregnant she thought her dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon were over. Over a slice of Bitty’s homemade cherry pie, she shared all of her hopes and dreams, and Bitty wasn’t going to let anything in this world stop her from achieving them.

It was a slow and awkward friendship at first. How do you make friends with someone when the only thing you really have in common is a love of pie and the knowledge of each other’s every hope and dream? Well, actually, it was the easiest thing in the world. Camila came in every day and every day Bitty had a new crazy recipe for her to try, and as her pregnancy wore on, the recipes became more outlandish as Camila shared her odd cravings with Bitty.

Bitty and Cami were best friends, and Cami often stayed over when Jack was out of town to keep Bitty company and pester him for his help with her baby registry. Bitty kept his suggestions practical and within her price range, although he already knew that anything that she didn’t get at her baby shower, he and Jack would buy the rest for her so she didn’t have to spend any extra money. Bitty would rub her feet while Cami studied Advanced Chemistry and Human Anatomy classes, and would drop by her little apartment to cook, with the groceries she insisted on buying, and keep her motivated while she cleaned. When she finally got to the point where she was unable to bend over, Bitty would help her without making her feel like an invalid.

When Celia came, Cami was alone in the hospital room, too stubborn to wake Bitty because she knew Jack was home for the next few days, but when the doctors told her that her daughter would never see, Cami called Bitty sobbing.

Eventually, Cami came to Bitty with her concerns that she would have to give Celia up for adoption because the surgeries and her loan debt were crushing the poor girl and she wanted her daughter to have a better life than she could provide. It took many conversations to come up with the solution to have an open adoption where Jack and Bitty would adopt Celia as their own; permanently. Camila wanted nothing more than to keep her daughter, but her visa would only last another year and all of Celia’s doctors were in the states. Camila didn’t ask for visitation, because she knew that once she left America, it would be too difficult, but she did ask to get updates on her daughter as often as possible and to skype with her on Christmas and her birthdays. Jack and Bitty enthusiastically agreed and assured Cami that Celia would be raised knowing who her mother was.

Celia’s adoption was finalized on August 23rd, and two weeks later, Camila got accepted into Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and applied to have her student visa extended and moved to New York to finish out her last year of undergrad online and work, while becoming acclimated to being on her own again.

That was in August, it was now November. Thanksgiving was two days away, and Bitty was beyond excited to have his own Thanksgiving dinner with his little family. Camila had been invited, but had turned down the invitation without much preamble. Bitty didn’t understand, he missed his friend, but Jack had kissed his temple and told him how hard it would be for her to see Cece and them being a family without her.

That’s what they were now: a family. Celia was a brilliant little girl. She had the biggest brown eyes that Bitty had ever seen. They were darker and deeper than his own, and he was certain that every time he looked at her, he got lost in them. She had curly black hair that was a wild, tangled mess, and she liked to chew on the ends of it. Finally, Jack got out his laptop and watched video after video until he was able to sit her in front of her and gently comb out her hair and braid it across her scalp so she was unable to chew on it. She was starting to walk and Jack thought it was going to give him a heart attack, but watching her chubby little legs as she walked along, holding onto the edge of the couch until she reached his reading chair, Jack never wanted her to stop growing and moving and taking the world by storm.

Jack was Père and Bitty was Papá and anything that came out of Cece’s mouth was a jumble of French, English, and the little Spanish she remembered from when she lived with her mother. Jack and Bitty had immediately gone to learn Spanish in order to preserve that part of Celia’s history.

Her favorite things to say were non (no), pa’que (for what), pourquoi (why), and puck, which was gleefully pronounced as “fuck” much to her Uncle Shitty’s never ending amusement.

She was her Papá’s most enthusiastic helper in the kitchen, and that was one of the reasons Bitty was so glad that they were staying at home for their first Thanksgiving with their daughter. He never wanted to stop making new memories with her. He would gladly allow her to go into battle in the kitchen with Moomaw next year, but for now he wanted to be selfish with his baby and hide her away from the world. He didn’t want to share the way that she would slowly use the colander to sift flour and tilt her head and look pensively off into the distance. Whenever he would ask her what she was doing she would say “Shh, Papá, escuche! I can hear it kiss the bowl.”

Today they were making a Thanksgiving Day feast together, but it was hard not to get distracted kissing Cece’s nose and cheeks when they got covered in flour. Jack was coming home at 2:30 and was going to put Cece, and himself, down for a nap before Shitty and Lardo arrived at 5 for dinner.

* * *

 

When Jack came home, Cece dropped the spoon she was holding when she heard the garage door open.

“Papá is that Père!?” she screeched, jumping down from the counter.

“What in the Sam hell?” Bitty cried, snatching the bowl up before it fell off the counter. “Celia Maite, I know that you know better than to act like that.”

“Ouais, Papá, but I miss Père.” Celia was dancing back and forth on her feet waiting to hear the key in the lock so she could rocket off to the door.

Bitty smiled down at her as the bounced from foot to foot. Her hair was piled up on her head in a sloppy bun, it was Jack that was good at intricate braids, Bitty was lazy and just did whatever it took to keep her hair from falling in her face while she was in the kitchen. He was sure that Jack would cluck his tongue at her hair when he saw her and would take the time to brush out her hair before he laid them down for a nap.

When he heard the key in the door he turned to check on everything on the stovetop before turning around to watch Celia launch herself in the general direction of Jack, trusting him to bridge the gap at catch her; he always did. Jack dropped his bags and keys and caught Celia and cuddled her up to his chest, murmuring to her in French.

Bitty walked over to kiss his husband and welcome him home.

“Mon couer, what did you do to our daughter’s hair?” Jack rumbled into Bitty’s mouth before kissing him back.

“My best,” Bitty huffed, lightly whacking Jack’s arm. Celia started giggling and babbling in a nonsensical mix of French and Spanish, Bitty wasn’t good enough at either language to parse what the mixture meant, but Jack hummed at her before asking her to try again.

“Bésame, please!” Celia crowed happily at Jack.

That Bitty understood. When Jack went to press a loud kiss to her forehead, Bitty leaned forward and gave her his own smacking kiss on the cheek, causing her to giggle.

Bitty walked over to the stove and put the burners on low. “I do believe that it is about time for a N-A-P, this is fine for now, I can join you.”

“That sounds amazing, Bits.”

After Jack changed into some sleep clothes he sat on the bed with Celia in between his legs and combed out her knotted hair. He braided it in a French braid so it would hold in her sleep and he let her snuggle up in the bed with him. Bitty spooned Jack from behind and it was the first time in a week Jack had been able to fall asleep without tossing and turning.

* * *

 

Jack woke up to soft kisses on the back of his neck. When he opened his eyes, Celia had starfished on the other half of the bed with Monsieur Lapin clutched firmly in her grip. Careful not to wake her, he rolled over on top of Bitty, who just chuckled under the weight.

“Hello, Mr. Zimmerman.”

“Hello, Mr. Bittle. I love you.”

“Jack,” Bitty’s voice was soft and breathy and Jack had to remind himself that his daughter was arm’s length away. “Sweet pea, I need to get up and finish getting dinner ready before Shitty and Lardo get here.”

Jack buried his face in Bitty’s neck and pressed one, two, three kisses to the soft skin there before Bitty relaxed back into the bed.

“Mr. Zimmermann, I mean business,” Bitty said.

“I don’t want to get up, you’re too comfy.”

“Oh, well, in that case we can lay here for about ten more minutes before I really have to get up, but the I really have to hurry and you’ll have to dress Cece on your own.”

“I love to dress Cece, and I don’t think Shitty or Lardo would mind if dinner took an extra fifteen minutes to get started. In fact, what if I call them right now.”

“Oh, no you don’t! This is the first Thanksgiving I am hosting on my own, my Mama is going to ask about this and you know it, everything has to go off without a hitch.”

“Baby. Bits. Eric, honey, of course it will,” Jack said, kissing across Eric’s face. “I love you.”

“You are the best husband in the world and I love you.”


End file.
